Chandigarh police detain protestors during PM's visit

Several workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who wanted to show black flags to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit here were detained Saturday, police said.

Former minister of state for civil aviation Harmohan Dhawan, who led the protest, and the activists were detained by near the Transport traffic light point.

The protestors wanted to show black flags to the prime minister when his motorcade passed the area. They were opposing the allotment of very small (one-room) flats to slum dwellers under the rehabilitation scheme implemented in Chandigarh.

Dhawan said that the police action against the protestors reminded them of the dark days of Emergency. He said that BJP workers were detained in police stations in Sector 26, 34 and 39.

He said that protests were a democratic right but police muzzled their voice.

The prime minister, who arrived here Saturday morning, handed over documents and keys of 10 flats to beneficiaries in the housing colony in Dhanas area under the city's slum rehabilitation scheme.